you live, you learn
So robogirl wanted me to do a little tutorial on how I transformed this into this and I think by now we long established that I'm her obedient slave, so here we go. I won't use the original source, though, because I'm not really willing to do it all over again, but with the following simple examples you'll certainly get the idea. Still, if there are any questions left feel free to ask and I'll see what I can do.
Oh, and just so you know: I'm not an expert. I have no idea if the methods I use to get what I want are the best or the easiest or the fastest, and, frankly, I don't care, because they usually work and that's all I need.
But let's get started:
I'm pretty sure you all know the clone stamp. At least if you're familiar with Photoshop. It's the first symbol in the fifth row of your tools bar (it should be, anyway) and in case you have never used it here's a little demonstration of how it works:
Move the mouse over the part you want to copy (or, well, the starting point to be exact), hold the alt key, left click on it (not the alt key, no ;)) once and start painting. In the picture above, the head part is done with 100% opacity, the chest part with 50% opacity and the flower is.. well, just to show you that you're able to use the clone stamp beyond your regular paintbrush. That's all.
The catch with this tutorial (and the only reason why I made the demonstration.. aside from entertaining you with shirtless Ryan Reynolds), is that I can't show you exactly every single step of what I do, so you have to know what we're working with to fill in the blanks yourself.
It wouldn't make sense to show you every single step, anyway, because with every picture you're working on the task is completely different. And then again it's the same. I seriously hope that you'll get what I'm talking about once you've seen all my examples.
-------------------
EXAMPLE ONE
(Click to enlarge. If you want to, use the original picture as a training object and actively work along with this tutorial)
This is Jake Gyllenhaal. He's cute, duh. And he wants to be iconized without being butchered (still 100x100, though), so.. what you have to do is the exact opposite. You create something that didn't make it into the picture.
I think you all get the resize part, so no further explanation.
Since the background is slightly faded I chose the two colors from the original pic with the eyedropper and made a gradient with, surprise surprise, the gradient tool. Which is right "behind" the paintbucket. As you can see it doesn't need to be perfectly fitting (the line between the two layers is still visible), it just makes the next step a little easier.
What I did now was merging the two layers, using the clone stamp with the soft brush (which is the default) and copying parts of the original pic's background to blur it with the gradient. Just try it and you'll know what I mean. For better, more seamless results start with 80% opacity, then 40%, then 10% (or something similar, the specifics don't matter) and a reciprocally proportional growing brush size.
Wait, does that make sense? Anyway, what I mean is, the lower the opacity, the bigger the brush. Oh, and try not to copy parts of Jake. Not yet.
The next and last part is extending the shoulder. A very easy task in this case, because all you have to do is copy the existing slant and.. uh.. extend it. Bend it a little more at the very end, so it doesn't look too fake. Mission accomplished!
(Click to enlarge.)
-------------------
EXAMPLE TWO
(Click to enlarge. If you want to, use the original picture as a training object and actively work along with this tutorial)
This is Chris Evans. Stop drooling. Okay, so kill me, but I'm really not a big fan of necklaces. Nor keys. So what we'll do now is get that damn thing off of him. It's a bit more tricky, because here there's actual structure to recreate, but it's still easier than you might think.
Tada! I know, it looks kind of hideous now, but first things first. I did exactly what I did with Jake's shoulder. I copied parts of his belly with the clone stamp (small brush size) to hide the necklace under. Sure, that's not exactly what I did with Jake's shoulder, but the idea is the same. Only that you have to do the "hold alt key, left click, copy"-thing a lot more often.
Different part of his body, same procedure. Try not to repeat patterns that are already there. If you do, anyway (it's bound to happen sometimes), use the clone stamp with a low opacity and paste some other part above it. Should be enough to distort the similarity.
So the key is gone, but we're still nowhere near where we want to be. Try out different brush sizes and opacities to achieve the result you want.
Better. Not perfect, though. Try some more. If you forgot how it looked like before you removed the key just use the original picture for reference.
Admittedly, depending on your personal level of need for perfection, the whole task can take hours until you're fully satisfied.
Nice job. The shadows and light are not a carbon copy of the original, but as long as it looks natural that obviously doesn't matter.
Sometimes it happens that your result is rather blurry (especially when you overdid it with the low opacity thing) if looked at in actual size, but in this case you can change that quickly by carefully using the sharpening tool, since the source is kinda grainy itself.
Like I said, every picture has different solutions to different problems, so be creative.
(Click to enlarge.)
While we're at it, let's get rid of those text segments as well, okay? Ready?
The background is mostly just dark, so this should be easy. To be sure, though, let's add a new layer, fill it white and change the layer opacity to 40% (for example). This way you see all the details (if there are any) and when you're done you can simply delete the layer again.
Now that's what I'm talking about.
Seems like we're on the right way. I'm sure you know by now how I did this, right?
Okay then. Off to the next.
Yeah, well. Boobs. But let's concentrate on our assignment. There are a few details to watch out for, but if you made it this far that shouldn't be a problem.
Exactly my point. And, yay, we're done.
Do you feel the sense of achievement?
(Click to enlarge.)
-------------------
This last example has nothing to do with the magazine cover that prompted this. It hasn't even anything to do with the clone stamp, but I wanted to do it, anyway, because it's good, clean fun.
EXAMPLE THREE
(Click to enlarge. If you want to, use the original picture as a training object and actively work along with this tutorial)
This is Wentworth Miller. Naturally the first thing you think about when you look at this picture is the sky. Because it's blue. And you really, really, really want it pink, don't you? Yeah, that's what I thought. Here's one way of getting what you want.
First thing to do: zoom it in. In this case 200% is all we need, but if the picture is smaller.. you know where this is heading, right?
Use the polygon lasso to frame in the sky. This can be very tedious and you need an easy hand. Don't rush through it, but rather take your time and cut it out precisely. Try not to miss too much of the blue.
When you're done, use the color balance to get whatever color you wish for.
Here you see what happens when you missed some of the blue stuff. You can try to use the blurring tool to distort it a little, but don't overdo it. If it doesn't help, hit the undo button and add/subtract the part in question from your selection, then do the color balance thing again.
I guess you could also do all this in the quick mask mode, if you want to.
As you can see in the first pic the pink sky is very detached from everything else. To avoid this I added a new layer with a gradient fading from the dark pink of the sky to a very light rose color. All in blending mode 'Soft Light' with a 25% opacity.
In my opinion, that still wasn't enough, though.
So what I did was selecting namely everything except for Mr. Miller and the sky..
..added a new layer and made yet another gradient from the same colors I used before. Only that this time I would blend it in 'Overlay' mode and lower the opacity to 30%.
What we get is a landscape that looks like it is actually illuminated by a pink sky. Nothing I personally prefer, but this is just an exercise after all and.. hey, you asked for it? ;)
And yes, one could argue that Mr. Miller should be a lot more pink then as well, but I'm done for now, so that's your choice.
(Click to enlarge.)
I hope this was fun. Take care. :)
Oh, and just so you know: I'm not an expert. I have no idea if the methods I use to get what I want are the best or the easiest or the fastest, and, frankly, I don't care, because they usually work and that's all I need.
But let's get started:
I'm pretty sure you all know the clone stamp. At least if you're familiar with Photoshop. It's the first symbol in the fifth row of your tools bar (it should be, anyway) and in case you have never used it here's a little demonstration of how it works:
Move the mouse over the part you want to copy (or, well, the starting point to be exact), hold the alt key, left click on it (not the alt key, no ;)) once and start painting. In the picture above, the head part is done with 100% opacity, the chest part with 50% opacity and the flower is.. well, just to show you that you're able to use the clone stamp beyond your regular paintbrush. That's all.
The catch with this tutorial (and the only reason why I made the demonstration.. aside from entertaining you with shirtless Ryan Reynolds), is that I can't show you exactly every single step of what I do, so you have to know what we're working with to fill in the blanks yourself.
It wouldn't make sense to show you every single step, anyway, because with every picture you're working on the task is completely different. And then again it's the same. I seriously hope that you'll get what I'm talking about once you've seen all my examples.
-------------------
EXAMPLE ONE
(Click to enlarge. If you want to, use the original picture as a training object and actively work along with this tutorial)
This is Jake Gyllenhaal. He's cute, duh. And he wants to be iconized without being butchered (still 100x100, though), so.. what you have to do is the exact opposite. You create something that didn't make it into the picture.
I think you all get the resize part, so no further explanation.
Since the background is slightly faded I chose the two colors from the original pic with the eyedropper and made a gradient with, surprise surprise, the gradient tool. Which is right "behind" the paintbucket. As you can see it doesn't need to be perfectly fitting (the line between the two layers is still visible), it just makes the next step a little easier.
What I did now was merging the two layers, using the clone stamp with the soft brush (which is the default) and copying parts of the original pic's background to blur it with the gradient. Just try it and you'll know what I mean. For better, more seamless results start with 80% opacity, then 40%, then 10% (or something similar, the specifics don't matter) and a reciprocally proportional growing brush size.
Wait, does that make sense? Anyway, what I mean is, the lower the opacity, the bigger the brush. Oh, and try not to copy parts of Jake. Not yet.
The next and last part is extending the shoulder. A very easy task in this case, because all you have to do is copy the existing slant and.. uh.. extend it. Bend it a little more at the very end, so it doesn't look too fake. Mission accomplished!
(Click to enlarge.)
-------------------
EXAMPLE TWO
(Click to enlarge. If you want to, use the original picture as a training object and actively work along with this tutorial)
This is Chris Evans. Stop drooling. Okay, so kill me, but I'm really not a big fan of necklaces. Nor keys. So what we'll do now is get that damn thing off of him. It's a bit more tricky, because here there's actual structure to recreate, but it's still easier than you might think.
Tada! I know, it looks kind of hideous now, but first things first. I did exactly what I did with Jake's shoulder. I copied parts of his belly with the clone stamp (small brush size) to hide the necklace under. Sure, that's not exactly what I did with Jake's shoulder, but the idea is the same. Only that you have to do the "hold alt key, left click, copy"-thing a lot more often.
Different part of his body, same procedure. Try not to repeat patterns that are already there. If you do, anyway (it's bound to happen sometimes), use the clone stamp with a low opacity and paste some other part above it. Should be enough to distort the similarity.
So the key is gone, but we're still nowhere near where we want to be. Try out different brush sizes and opacities to achieve the result you want.
Better. Not perfect, though. Try some more. If you forgot how it looked like before you removed the key just use the original picture for reference.
Admittedly, depending on your personal level of need for perfection, the whole task can take hours until you're fully satisfied.
Nice job. The shadows and light are not a carbon copy of the original, but as long as it looks natural that obviously doesn't matter.
Sometimes it happens that your result is rather blurry (especially when you overdid it with the low opacity thing) if looked at in actual size, but in this case you can change that quickly by carefully using the sharpening tool, since the source is kinda grainy itself.
Like I said, every picture has different solutions to different problems, so be creative.
(Click to enlarge.)
While we're at it, let's get rid of those text segments as well, okay? Ready?
The background is mostly just dark, so this should be easy. To be sure, though, let's add a new layer, fill it white and change the layer opacity to 40% (for example). This way you see all the details (if there are any) and when you're done you can simply delete the layer again.
Now that's what I'm talking about.
Seems like we're on the right way. I'm sure you know by now how I did this, right?
Okay then. Off to the next.
Yeah, well. Boobs. But let's concentrate on our assignment. There are a few details to watch out for, but if you made it this far that shouldn't be a problem.
Exactly my point. And, yay, we're done.
Do you feel the sense of achievement?
(Click to enlarge.)
-------------------
This last example has nothing to do with the magazine cover that prompted this. It hasn't even anything to do with the clone stamp, but I wanted to do it, anyway, because it's good, clean fun.
EXAMPLE THREE
(Click to enlarge. If you want to, use the original picture as a training object and actively work along with this tutorial)
This is Wentworth Miller. Naturally the first thing you think about when you look at this picture is the sky. Because it's blue. And you really, really, really want it pink, don't you? Yeah, that's what I thought. Here's one way of getting what you want.
First thing to do: zoom it in. In this case 200% is all we need, but if the picture is smaller.. you know where this is heading, right?
Use the polygon lasso to frame in the sky. This can be very tedious and you need an easy hand. Don't rush through it, but rather take your time and cut it out precisely. Try not to miss too much of the blue.
When you're done, use the color balance to get whatever color you wish for.
Here you see what happens when you missed some of the blue stuff. You can try to use the blurring tool to distort it a little, but don't overdo it. If it doesn't help, hit the undo button and add/subtract the part in question from your selection, then do the color balance thing again.
I guess you could also do all this in the quick mask mode, if you want to.
As you can see in the first pic the pink sky is very detached from everything else. To avoid this I added a new layer with a gradient fading from the dark pink of the sky to a very light rose color. All in blending mode 'Soft Light' with a 25% opacity.
In my opinion, that still wasn't enough, though.
So what I did was selecting namely everything except for Mr. Miller and the sky..
..added a new layer and made yet another gradient from the same colors I used before. Only that this time I would blend it in 'Overlay' mode and lower the opacity to 30%.
What we get is a landscape that looks like it is actually illuminated by a pink sky. Nothing I personally prefer, but this is just an exercise after all and.. hey, you asked for it? ;)
And yes, one could argue that Mr. Miller should be a lot more pink then as well, but I'm done for now, so that's your choice.
(Click to enlarge.)
I hope this was fun. Take care. :)